According to ancient tradition passing from generation to
generation, the Horowitz family originated from a dynasty of well-known
Spanish and French rabbis and scholars: R. Yitzhak Ha-Levi of Gerona, the
son of R. Pinchas Ha-Levi, the brother of famous HaROeH (R. Aharon Ha-Levi)
of Barcelona, the son of R. Yosef Ha-Levi, the son of R. Banbaneshti
Ha-Levi, the son of R. Yosef Ha-Levi, the son of R. Zerakhyah Ha-Levi,
the author of "Ha-Maor", the son of R. Yitzhak Ha-Levi of Gerona, the son of
R. Zerakhyah Ha-Levi, the son of R. Shem-Tov Ha-Levi, whose roots, in turn,
can be traced back to the prophet Shmuel and the descendants of Yitzhar, the
son of Khat, the son of Yakov our Father.

And the legend tells as how at the height of anti-Jewish
persecutions in medieval Spain "there stood up a man of that high and noble
family, took his wife and his children and went to Eretz Chana'an (pioneers
of the Exodus from Spain used this name to refer to Bohemia). And they came
to Eretz Chana'an".

In that period Vladislas II, the eldest son of Casimir IV Jagiello, King
of Poland, reigned in Bohemia (from 1471). After the death of Hungarian king
Matthias Corvinus in 1490, Vladislas was elected King of Hungary (under the
name of Ulázló II) and since then spend most of his time in Buda (modern
Budapest). So did his son, Louis, the last Jagiellonian king of Bohemia and
Hungary who inherited the throne (under the name of Ludvik II and Lajos II)
at the age of 9 after his father's death in 1516. Louis drowned fleeing the
battlefield after his army was defeated by Ottoman Turks at Mohács on the
Danube in 1526. The reign of the two Jagiellonians was marked by a decline
of royal authority. In this latter period the Catholic lords gained entrance
to the royal court and exercised strong influence on the public affairs of
Bohemia which was devastated by incessant wars and conflicts and needed
people of skills and means. On the other hand, the Catholic church's
influence was weakened by the Hussite wars and the struggle waged against it
by alternative Christian movements. Under these conditions Jews were
permitted to stay there, and they could easily find a place to settle.

The miserable wanderer was a wealthy man. He settled in a
village (some sources say that he simply purchased it), which later became a
town named Horovice
(Horowitz, about 50 km southwest of Prague). This man's name was Yishayahu
ben Moshe Ha-Levi, and, later, after he moved to Prague and assumed an
important position in its Jewish community, he was called "Yishayahu Ha-Levi
Ish Horowitz" - the man of Horowitz, after the name of the place from where
he had come. He purchased a big house on "Gold Street" in the Jewish Town of
Prague, where jewelers, merchants and other wealthy representatives of the
Jewish population then lived.

The
above is an extraction from the internet version of a book written and
published by Shlomo Gurevich
which is now available in
English as well as in
Russian language:
"Gurevich, Gurovich, Gurvich, Gorvich, Gurvitz, Horowitz and others. History
of A Great Family" (Haifa, 1999, ISBN 965-222-971-7)

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The pages herein were created by the
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permission. Last updated:
06/11/07.